Married Pastor's Teenage Girlfriend Isn't What Bothers His Church Most

Megachurch pastor and married man Jack Schaap has angered his congregation but good. They fired their long-time spiritual leader this week for having an affair. Infidelity is a sin after all.

So what doesn't seem to bother the members of the First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana nearly as much? The fact that 54-year-old Schaap's alleged mistress was just 16 years old.

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Quiz time. If you found out a married 54-year-old man was having an affair with a 16-year-old girl, what would concern you most? The affair? Or the fact that his girlfriend was 16? There is a 38-year age difference here! She's just a kid!

As a mother and all-around normal human being, I'd have to go with number two ... how about you?

But not the folks at First Baptist. A church spokesman says they turned over evidence of their pastor's alleged affair to the cops, but they don't think their former pastor did anything illegal. In fact, the girl's age didn't factor into the firing at all -- Schaap was simply canned for committing "a sin that has caused him to forfeit his right to be our pastor." They're just all "dumbfounded," as one church member told the local ABC affiliate, by the fact that Schaap allegedly committed adultery.

Folks, maybe it's not illegal. The age of consent in Indiana is 16 after all, although cops are investigating whether the alleged affair crossed state lines.

But can we talk priorities here for just a second? I don't care whose bed your boots have been under, provided you're both adults. And by adults, I don't mean under the eyes of the law. I mean realistically adults. A 16-year-old may be up for sex with an 18-year-old or a 21-year-old. But with a 54-year-old? Sorry, but that's creepy in any situation.

But in noting they fired Jack Schaap only for the sin of infidelity, what this megachurch (which broadcasts its sermons on TV to show off how holy it is) has essentially said is "this would have been OK if only he didn't have a wife."

That doesn't give me a lot of faith in their faith, folks. A 54-year-old man should know better than to touch a 16-year-old girl -- whether he's married or not.

What do you make of a 54-year-old and a 16-year-old engaged in a relationship?